The parliamentary faction of coalition partner Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) has joined the initiative of opposition Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF, Dashnaktsutyun) and Heritage factions to hold parliamentary hearings on proportional and majoritarian systems of parliamentary representation.

PAP faction secretary Aram Safaryan says he signed the letter addressed to National Assembly Speaker Samvel Nikoyan, asking to call parliamentary hearings for the passage to proportional system of parliamentary elections.

Safaryan says that yet in spring 2007, on the initiative of PAP, his party members have unanimously voted for the passage to a 100-percent proportional system of parliamentary elections.

“The political board of PAP has not discussed this issue with the PAP parliamentary faction yet, and no decision has been made yet. But we join this proposal because we are eager to attract the public’s attention to this issue, to listen to ‘for’ and ‘against’ opinions, and only after it to hold a political discussion over the issue,” Safaryan says.

It is proposed to remove the majoritarian system of parliamentary elections from the Electoral Code and pass to 100-percent proportional system of parliamentary representation in order to organize and control fair and free elections.

“If a political party is really a political party and has an ideological basis, then it has always striven for and will continue to strive for having maximum seats through proportional system. Other versions are usually discussed by those forces which think how to become a lawmaker through the power of money, administrative levers or other non-democratic means,” says ARF faction member Artsvik Minasyan.

The National Assembly of Armenia has 131 seats, with 41 members elected from single-mandate constituencies, or by the majoritarian system as it is called, and 90 members – by proportional system.